BMC removes Dia Mirza's Diwali campaign video after BJP's Satam tweets; she says she took no money

A controversy appears to be brewing over the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's celebrity campaign for Diwali. In view of rising pollution, the civic body has launched an awareness campaign featuring several cricketers and film personalities, who are telling people how to celebrate Diwali in an environment-friendly way.

Under the campaign, the civic body had posted videos of several celebrities on its social media pages. One of them was a video of actress Dia Mirza. That video has now been deleted by the civic body.

Mumbai BJP president Amit Satam tweeted, tagging the civic body, and raised some questions. Satam wrote that there was no need to take lessons from Dia Mirza on how to celebrate Diwali. He also said that our traditions and culture are deeply rooted.

Dia Mirza's video has now been removed from the civic body's social media page, while the videos of the other artistes remain there. These include videos of Madhuri Dixit, Mahesh Kothare, Shiv Thakare and Siddharth Jadhav. Of all of them, only Dia's video has been taken down.

No information has so far emerged on why the video was removed. It is being said, however, that it was deleted after Amit Satam objected. There is no information that the civic body has confirmed this claim.

After the video was removed, Dia Mirza also responded on social media. She wrote in a comment, "I have not taken any money. The age of goodness is gone." Her post is being discussed on social media.

Questions are now being raised over the removal of an actress's video from the civic body's campaign against pollution. On one side is the tweet by Mumbai BJP president Amit Satam, on the other Dia Mirza's response. The civic body's reply on why the video was removed is still awaited.